EXRON EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: BLASTOYZ

September 12, 2019

We recently got the chance to catch up with Blastoyz after his set at Electric Zoo on the stage hosted by Ophelia Records. Blastoyz has had quite the journey to becoming the artist and producer that he is today including serving in the Israeli military for three years. He has seen huge support from Jeff Montalvo aka Seven Lions and his imprint Ophelia Records. Their most recent collaboration together was ‘After Dark’ featuring Fiora. Currently Blastoyz has over 122,000 followers on SoundCloud and 415,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. He has cemented himself as a staple to the psytrance genre and his passion for psytrance is extremely palpable. Check out our full interview with Blastoyz including some exciting news about upcoming releases:

Photo by: aLIVE Coverage for ElectricZoo.com

Photo by: aLIVE Coverage for ElectricZoo.com

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Exron Music:You’re originally from Tel Aviv, how was the music scene there when you were growing up and how did you find your way to electronic music production?

Blastoyz: Yeah so I grew up a little South of Tel Aviv and the music scene is really big there, especially psytrance. I would say psytrance is one the biggest genres in Israel because it started a very long time ago and people grew up to psytrance and you just get exposed to it at a very young age. I was exposed really early I started to produce psytrance when I was around 9 years old. After that I discovered Infected Mushroom and I thought it was so cool that they were producing similar music and performing it overseas. It became my goal to play just a small show overseas and it got way bigger than my expectation.

Exron Music: You served in the Israeli military for some time. How do you think this experienced shaped you as individual and an artist?

Blastoyz: Yeah so, being in the military is mandatory for three years. At first I felt like it was going to ruin my process of becoming an international musician because they don’t allow you to fly while you are in the military. At first I didn’t really want to join the military but in Israel if you don’t do it people don’t look at you in a good light and also it’s harder to find jobs. But I accepted it and I joined the military and I believed everything happens for a reason and everything comes in time.

Exron Music: You’ve been playing quite a few festivals this summer. What is your favorite part of playing to the large festival crowds?

Blastoyz: The advantage of playing to a big crowd is you can feel everyone. They are looking at you and waiting for you to play and you can feel the connection with the crowd, it’s incredible. You feel like you are the leader and it’s cool I like it. Small shows are also good though because you can feel everyone close to you.

Exron Music: Earlier this summer you released a track with David Gravell called ‘Never Sleep’. What was the inspiration for this track and how was it working with David?

Blastoyz: So I met David at A State of Trance and as soon as I saw him and we started talking I felt a connection. We suddenly said why don’t we connect psytrance and trance together and do a crossover and we just started working on a track. He brought his sounds and I brought my sounds and it just worked out. I’m really happy with the way it came out.

Exron Music: You spend a lot of time traveling to shows and festivals across the world. Do you have any specific methods you use to stay well rested and in good health?

Blastoyz: I’ve been doing it for around seven or eight years now constantly flying and moving around all over the World. The first two years were really difficult and I got sick a lot, like every two weeks I was at the doctor. I was going from a hot country one day to a cold country the next. I realized that stress contributes a lot as well so I started to calm myself down a little and tried to stress less. I also started eating better and following some guidelines from a doctor about what to eat. Since then things are going a lot better and I just try to rest as much as I can and eat healthy.

Exron Music: In June you released a remix for Andrew Rayel and Graham Bell’s ‘Tambores’. How does this remix reflect your style as an artist?

Blastoyz: That was another really cool cross between trance and psytrance, the track originally has a really low BPM and I took it to the psytrance level. At the beginning it was pretty difficult for me to do it and I was unhappy with it but I just worked on it for awhile at the studio and now Armin Van Buuren is playing it in a lot of his sets. It’s really nice. It’s awesome.

Exron Music: We are so excited for the future of the Blastoyz project. Can you share any upcoming plans with us?

Blastoyz: Yes! The next upcoming thing is I’m going to release a remix for Jeff (Seven Lions) for Freesol. I played it today actually. It’s gonna be released really soon and I’m excited about. Jeff and I are also working on another collaboration with another artist, a very special singer. I’m also working on a remix for Kill the Noise. There’s a lot of things coming up. I also want to focus my time in the United States because I love this place and my connection with Jeff is really great. It’s really cool to perform at this stage (Riverside) and that he has given a place for psytrance here in the US.